Economico for Usage-based & API businesses

Know whether usage growth is improving your margin

Usage revenue can grow while margin gets worse. Record the contract, metered activity, and delivery costs in one set of books so you can explain the difference.

Connect your agent

More calls do not always mean more profit

When an investor asks about gross margin, the answer depends on two records: what customers used and what serving them cost. A billing dashboard may show the first. Your infrastructure bills may show the second. If they never meet in the books, the margin story becomes a spreadsheet exercise.

Record the pricing agreement, then the activity

Your agent can record a customer contract with a platform fee, metered price, or commitment. When you supply usage, Economico rates it against the recorded terms and posts the resulting financial activity. The activity statement links the amount back to the contract and units that produced it.

Record delivery costs in the appropriate accounts as they arrive. With revenue and costs classified consistently, the income statement can show the margin you actually earned. Customer-level margin requires costs to be attributed to those customers; it cannot be inferred from a total cloud bill.

Questions worth answering before the next pricing decision

  • How much revenue came from commitments versus metered activity?
  • Did delivery costs grow faster than usage revenue this month?
  • Which customer or product margins can we support with attributed costs?

Economico records usage and financial activity. It does not pull usage or cloud costs from your systems automatically; your agent needs the source data and the right classifications.

A usage-based startup's first quarter · in journal entries

Two meters, one ledger.

Scroll through PulseMeter API's first quarter — platform fees plus metered events on the revenue side, metering and warehouse costs on the other. The same meter, accounted.

01

Incorporate and raise

Rafa and Jun put in $20,000 and close a $130,000 angel SAFE. Financing, not revenue — the books know the difference.

We incorporated PulseMeter and closed a $130,000 angel SAFE — open the books.
5 tool calls
  • Economicocontracts.create✓
    {
  "ledgerBindings": {
    "money": "led_00000000000000000000000840"
  },
  "parties": {
    "founder-a": "rafa-alvarez",
    "founder-b": "jun-park"
  },
  "templateDocumentId": "doc_01KBBKB100NBNKN3KZHPHZA2GZ",
  "terms": {
    "authorize": {
      "shares": "12000000"
    },
    "buy-founder-a": {
      "par": "50000",
      "premium": "950000",
      "shares": "5000000"
    },
    "buy-founder-b": {
      "par": "50000",
      "premium": "950000",
      "shares": "5000000"
    }
  }
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "buy-founder-a",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB1003WYRN5767VPAGCW6",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "buy-founder-a",
  "sourceFactId": "founder-stock:rafa-alvarez"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "buy-founder-b",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB1003WYRN5767VPAGCW6",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "buy-founder-b",
  "sourceFactId": "founder-stock:jun-park"
}
  • Economicocontracts.create✓
    {
  "ledgerBindings": {
    "money": "led_00000000000000000000000840"
  },
  "parties": {
    "investor": "infra-angels"
  },
  "templateDocumentId": "doc_01KBBKB100C26RERWPPRHQQ99G",
  "terms": {
    "fund": {
      "amount": "13000000"
    }
  }
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "fund",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100C8T3XEHK0Q40ZKTC",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-15T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "fund",
  "sourceFactId": "mercury:wire:infra-angels-safe"
}
$150,000 in — $20,000 founder cash, $130,000 SAFE financing. Revenue: zero, correctly.
02

A plan with a meter on it

SignalForge signs: $1,500 platform fee plus $0.01 per event. January's meter adds $450.

SignalForge signed — $1,500 platform fee plus $0.01 per event. Bill January.
4 tool calls
  • Economicoparties.create✓
    {
  "categories": [
    "customer"
  ],
  "name": "SignalForge",
  "partyId": "signalforge"
}
  • Economicocontracts.create✓
    {
  "ledgerBindings": {
    "money": "led_00000000000000000000000840"
  },
  "parties": {
    "customer": "signalforge"
  },
  "templateDocumentId": "doc_01KBBKB1008R0ZP5KQPYHY8434",
  "terms": {
    "events": {
      "per_event": "1"
    },
    "platform": {
      "monthly": "150000"
    }
  }
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "platform",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100Z2YACYFZS9MXGGPD",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-05T00:00:00Z",
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "PMA-INV-001:platform"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "events",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100Z2YACYFZS9MXGGPD",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "events": "45000"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "PMA-INV-001:events"
}
PMA-INV-001: $1,500 platform plus $450 of metered events — $1,950, each line to its own revenue account.
03

Usage cost meets usage revenue

SignalForge pays its January invoice; OpenMeter and ClickHouse are paid from checking — the cost side of the same meter. January nets $300.

Find and handle any bills.
4 tool calls
  • Gmailsearch_gmail_messages✓
    {
  "q": "(receipt OR invoice) from:(openmeter.io OR clickhouse.com) after:2026/01/01"
}
  • Gmailread_gmail_message✓
    {
  "messageId": "287688146420492e"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "bill",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100JF7G321FAY1XX27D",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "amount": "35000",
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "openmeter:receipt:2026-01"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "bill",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB10028CW3718HDZVTG7G",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "amount": "130000",
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "clickhouse:receipt:2026-01"
}
OpenMeter $350 and ClickHouse $1,300, paid from checking — your usage cost, on the same ledger as usage revenue. January nets $300.
04

The meters run higher

February: SignalForge's events climb, and PacketPilot comes aboard metered-only.

Bill February — SignalForge's meter ran higher, and PacketPilot's events too.
3 tool calls
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "platform",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100Z2YACYFZS9MXGGPD",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-02-06T00:00:00Z",
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-02",
  "sourceFactId": "PMA-INV-004:platform"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "events",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100Z2YACYFZS9MXGGPD",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-02-28T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "events": "78000"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-02",
  "sourceFactId": "PMA-INV-004:events"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "events",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100DKTD67DQKDDT3RP5",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-02-28T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "events": "112000"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-02",
  "sourceFactId": "PMA-INV-005"
}
February billed: $2,280 and $1,120, straight from the meters. Usage revenue recognized as it's consumed — no spreadsheet reconciliation.
05

The margin question

Revenue per customer next to the metering, warehouse, and enrichment costs that served it.

Which customer actually makes us money?
2 tool calls
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "kind": "revenue_summary",
  "period_end": "2026-02-28T23:59:59.999Z",
  "period_start": "2026-01-01"
}
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "from": "2026-01-01",
  "kind": "income_statement",
  "until": "2026-03-01"
}
Revenue $5,350 against $4,690 of metering, warehouse, and enrichment costs — net $660 so far. Margin per customer needs those costs attributed to the customers they served.
06

The quarter closes

HarborMetrics joins in March on an $800 platform fee: three customers, two revenue lines, one set of books that ties.

Close the quarter and read revenue by line.
2 tool calls
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "from": "2026-01-01",
  "kind": "income_statement",
  "until": "2026-04-01"
}
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "as_of": "2026-04-01",
  "kind": "balance_sheet"
}
Quarter revenue $10,350 across three customers, net income $3,190 — platform fees and metered events each on their own line, and the balance sheet ties.

Ask it to bill the usage, then tell you what it earned

Bill platform + usage
Invoice SignalForge for the $1,500 platform fee plus 45,000 events at $0.01 this month.
Record infra cost
Record this month's $1,300 ClickHouse bill as cost of revenue.
Check gross margin
Show this month's gross margin, then each customer's revenue. Which infrastructure and data costs still need attributing to a customer?

What you'll use

The money loop, tuned for usage-based & API businesses.

18Usage metering $ 06Invoicing & receivables 02Accrual accounting % 11Founder analytics 05Report sharing 01General ledger

Get started

Books your agent runs. Numbers you can explain.

Hand your agent the setup guide, approve its connection, and start with one real transaction. Inspect the books as you go.

Connect your agent

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